For the second straight year the Muhlenberg men’ s golf team rallied late at the Centennial Conference Championships to finish third.

With the event changed from three days to two, the Mules sat in fifth after Day One. But Muhlenberg again saved its best for last, leapfrogging one squad at the end of the second round and another at the close of the tournament for a second consecutive third-place finish and a third straight in the top three.

Slocum finished in the top 13 at the CC Championships in each of his final three years at Muhlenberg.

The Mules played an impressive fall season, finishing no worse than sixth in any tournament. Muhlenberg opened the season with a second-place finish at the Moravian Invitational and scored its lone tournament win of the year two weeks later at the Messiah Falcon Classic, where junior Zachary Oyer earned medalist honors.

But the Mules struggled out of the gate in the spring. After finishing in the bottom-half of the pack in four straight tournaments, though, Muhlenberg showed promise with an impressive fourth-place showing at the Ursinus Invitational. The tournament was played on the same course as the CC Championships and featured all seven CC teams, essentially serving as a preview of the event, and all three teams that finished ahead of the Mules were CC squads.

Two weeks later at the Championships Muhlenberg showed improvement by shooting better in all three rounds than it had two weeks earlier and moving up to third. All five Mules had a round in the 70s in the tournament, and the squad had an all-conference finisher for the first time since 2004.

The All-CC nod went to Oyer, who finished fourth with a 228 and shot below his season average in all three rounds (77, 76, 75). For the second straight season Oyer was Muhlenberg’ s top golfer; he led the team with a stroke average of 78.0 – the second-best average by a Mule in the last 15 years, only .01 off his average in 2009 – and shot in the 70s in nine of 14 rounds. He added two second-place finishes in the fall to his victory at Messiah.

Senior Biff Slocum ended his career with a 13th-place finish at the Championships and a season average of 81.9, including six rounds in the 70s.

Sophomores Matthew Cohen(81.1) and Zack Meyers (81.6) and junior Jordan Carpenter (82.1) were the Mules’ other competitors at the Championships. Cohen shot a 75 at the Mid-Atlantic Region Invitational, and Meyers and Carpenter both had rounds of 77 during the season.

Freshman Brandon Davis (83.6) had third- and seventh-place tournament finishes in the fall but participated in just three events in the spring.